The company says it is also “to improve its system-wide punctuality which has fallen below 80% in the first two weeks of September.”

And they claim they are doing it for benefit of their passengers.

The cull of flights is taking place across their European network – with 17 Irish flights today and tomorrow being cancelled already.

In a statement, Ryanair said: “Ryanair, today announced that it would cancel 40-50 flights daily for the next six weeks, to the end of October, to improve its system-wide punctuality which has fallen below 80% in the first two weeks of September.

“This has happened through a combination of ATC capacity delays and strikes, weather disruptions and the impact of increased holiday allocations to pilots and cabin crew as the airline moves to allocate annual leave during a 9 month transition period (April to December 2017) to move the airline’s holiday year (currently April to March) to a calendar year (Jan to Dec) from 1st January 2018 onwards.

“Ryanair apologises sincerely for the inconvenience caused to customers by these cancellations.

CRASH HORROR

'gentle soul'

One person, who was part of a hen party, says Ryanair have completely tarnished their plans.

She said: “@Ryanair Absolutely disgraceful that you’ve cancelled our flight without explanation. You are single handedly ruining a hen party.

“And we’re stranded in the middle of nowhere with no money and a pregnant lady.”

One said: “Alternative Ryanair flights from Edinburgh to London on Monday so what are we supposed to do!? This is farcical!!”

Another worried traveller asked: “Please help – you’ve cancelled my flight but I’m in a different country and now just want to get home. How can I reroute my flight?”

Ryanair’s Robin Kiely says it is hoped these cancellations will improve their “operational resilience.”

He said: “We have operated a record schedule (and traffic numbers) during the peak summer months of July and August but must now allocate annual leave to pilots and cabin crew in September and October (while still running the bulk of our summer schedule).

“This increased leave at a time of ATC capacity delays and strikes, has severely reduced our on-time performance over the past two weeks to under 80%.

“By cancelling less than 2% of our flying programme over the next six weeks, (until our winter schedule starts in early November) we can improve the operational resilience of our schedules and restore punctuality to our annualised target of 90%.

“We apologise sincerely to the small number of customers affected by these cancellations, and will be doing our utmost to arrange alternative flights and/or full refunds for them.”